October 21, 2009

Dogfooding

One of the best endorsements a product can get is when its creators are willing to use it themselves: would you trust a parachute manufacturer whose CEO refuses to use his own chutes? The idea of using your own product is called "eating your own dogfood" or "dogfooding"; the concept isn't unique to programming, but you don't hear the term used much outside of the computer industry.

I bring this up because I've started eating my own dog food with my latest side project: a Web publishing tool I'm calling Lithograph. Although it isn't anywhere close to finished, I've started using it to build the site you're reading right now.

Blogging programs are a dime a dozen, but unlike most of them, Lithograph isn't a web application that runs on my server: it's a Mac app I run on my laptop.

Why Not a Web App?

There's a variety of reasons, but it's mostly because I don't think I would learn anything. Sure, I could implement it using a new language, or a different framework, but at the end of the day they're all really the same.

I've been meaning to learn the Cocoa API for a while now, and building Lithograph has been a great learning experience (expect to see some more journal entries about Cocoa and Mac programming). The concepts behind building GUI software for the desktop are totally different from web apps, and it's refreshing to have a change of pace.

As much as I love the Web, I don't think HTML, CSS, and Javascript are quite ready1 to deliver the same kind of experience as native applications. I'm definitely looking forward to writing some custom UI controls and playing with Core Animation eye-candy.

Obligatory Screenshot

The UI is far from perfect, and it's going to change as I keep working on it, but here's what it looks like as of today:

Lithograph Screenshot

It's not much, but it's mine, and I'm pumped about working on it.

  1. The Canvas API and Google Gears are steps in the right direction, though.  ↩

November 7, 2009

[Note: I found this document on campus, forgotten by someone in Leach Theatre. I thought it was more interesting than the art appreciation class I was supposed to be paying attention to; I'm reposting it here for your enjoyment.]

A One Page Writing Course

Make your words strong and enduring.

Read out loud. Your own and other's work.

Absorb rhythms: music, speech, seasons, breathing, running, dancing, (Erra Pound said it: Music begins to atrophy when it gets too far from dance; poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music).

Cultivate writers that inspire you. (Move you to think, write, act). A couple of old ones and a couple of new ones. Walt Whitman speaks directly to American posts. Read "Song of the Open Road," if you've got the time.

Don't underestimate the obvious.

Keep your ears opened. Not an easy task.

Poetry = (Intellect / Music) + (Articulation / Feeling) X (Silence + Surprise)^2

"Eternity is in love with the productions of time" -- William Blake

Turn out the tube. Venture. Site quietly for sunset.

Hear posts read. Make a pilgrimage.

Have a note book/journal:

  1. It gives a place for wandering ideas/insights to land.

  2. A notebook will hold: lists, dreams, letters, tentative poems, reminders, faces, schemes, remembered words, drawing, inspiration, lottery tickets, lyrics, etc. It becomes a quarry and there is no external pressure to be "right" or profound. Self-censorship prevents the emergence of ideas. A notebook is a free space where anything written can be erased, modified, intensified, and pursued.

Let written pieces find their own form -- PLAY.

When the work itself begins to instruct you, know that you are on to something.

In general, rewrite as many times as you can possibly tolerate.

Sources: Impulse. Dreams (day and night). Insight. Outsight. Music. Movies. Conversation. History (personal-universal). Love. Pain. Spring. Stars. Trees. Birds. The Lake. Rivers. Parents. Dear Spirits. Children. Railroad Yards. Whatever catapults you into wanting/needing to get it said, and go forth.

Have an intriguing title. For a Hitchcock film: "The One Who Killed Me Was..."

LIMIT THE TOPIC. LIMIT THE TOPIC. LIMIT THE TOPIC

AVOID THE FOLLOWING

DO NOT AVOID THE FOLLOWING

If "this" stands alone, it probably can't.

He said "The period and the comma always goes within the quotation marks.
"Always," he said.

Don't use a fancy font.

A conclusion is not a summary.